Watergate Scandal

Decades after Richard Nixon resigned the office of the president, Watergate remains one of the top presidential scandals of modern time. Early in the morning on June 17, 1972, police discovered five intruders inside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. The burglars were there, it turned out, to adjust bugging equipment they had installed during a May break-in and to photograph the Democrats’ documents.
The Watergate investigation brought fame to The Washington Post and the reporting team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. The duo unraveled a web of political spying and sabotage that had all the elements of a Hollywood saga. In the end, after 40 government officials were indicted and a president resigned, many would conclude that the system of checks and balances worked. Yet, the triangular relationship between public officials, the media and the public was altered forever.
In June of 1972 in Washington, D.C. an event occurred, a burglary, which ended up holding worldwide importance. It was on this date that five people broke into the Democratic National Headquarters to bug their telephones. These men were members of the ‘Plumbers’, a group of anti Castro Cuban refugees, former FBI agents and former CIA agents among others. The group was strongly Republican. The place they broke into was The Watergate Hotel.
Many people remember the name Watergate as a blanket term used to describe the fall of President Richard Nixon. But do you remember the specifics of those events? It has taken years filled with books and interviews to begin to understand what the scandal and its complications truly were. This article will attempt to be a ‘primer’, a starting point from which you may go and research further this event.
In the early 1970’s America was still reeling from its turbulent time in the 1960’s. One of the issues that was greatly contested in the 60’s, Vietnam, had carried it’s self over into the new decade. By this time though, the opinions and thoughts of many concerning the war had started to change. Daniel Ellsberg was one of these individuals. A former defense department analyst, his thoughts on the war had turned and in 1971 he turned over a secret Pentagon report concerning the history of the war to the New York Times. The times immediately began publishing these ‘Pentagon Papers’, which greatly infuriated many of those in charge of the country, including President Nixon. When Nixon became unable to stop the publication of the papers through legal channels, he turned in another direction for help.
The plumbers were a ‘secret’ unit created and maintained by the White House with the expressed purpose of ‘fixing leaks’ in the administration. The Plumbers were immediately charged with going after Ellsberg. The thought was that if the papers publication could not be stopped, the next step would be to discredit the man who provided those papers. This included braking into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office to dig up what they could.
They worked tirelessly at their goal and were soon rewarded with another job in the following election year; derailing the Democratic ticket. On June 17, 1972 a group of men broke into the DNC Headquarters to find what they could and to bug the offices. A sharp-eyed security officer saw the break in, called the police and the burglars were quickly taken into custody. Over the next few days and months, amazing insights into these men came out. One of the burglars used to be a GOP security aide, another was found to have a 25,000$ check that was supposed to have gone to Nixon’s re-election campaign. In fact, it turned out that all of the burglars were on the payroll of the committee to Re-Elect the president (C.R.E.E.P).
As this unfolded, Nixon went on to win the presidential election in one of the biggest landslides in history. It would be Nixon’s last big win. Following his re-election the repercussions from the Watergate break-in grew larger. Several of the burglars went to jail. As the connection between these burglars and the Republican White House grew stronger, several White House staffers were forced to resign and White House Chief Counsel John Dean resigned.
Rumors swirled about the break-in, the similar events that many believed had also occurred and Nixon’s involvement in it all. In May of 1973 the Senate opened up hearings on the Watergate break-in and under intense pressure, Nixon had Archibald Cox appointed as Special Prosecutor to the case.
The Senate investigation went forward and immediately became damaging to the President in June as John Dean became the first (former) White House staff member to admit that he had discussions with the President concerning Watergate and how to cover it up. In July things got worse as it was revealed in the Senate hearings that Nixon had a sophisticated taping system set up in the Oval Office with which he had taped all of this conversations. The Senate Committee and Special Prosecutor Cox immediately requested that Nixon hand those tapes over. Citing everything from National Security to Executive Privilege, Nixon refuses to hand over the tapes.
The pressure on Nixon continued to grow strong, so much so that on October 20, 1973 he was moved to commit the ‘Saturday Night Massacre’. Unable to shake Cox’s pressure, Nixon contacted Attorney General Elliott Richardson and ordered him to fire Cox. Richardson refused and was himself immediately fired. Nixon then turned to the Assistant Attorney General to fire Cox. He too refused and was fired. Nixon finally found someone who would fire Cox but the resulting backlash forced Nixon to have a new Special Prosecutor appointed. Leon Jaworski was given that task and immediately began pressing Nixon to hand over the tapes.
In July of 1974 Jaworski had no other choice but to name Nixon as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the obstruction of justice over the Watergate matter. Nixon continued to claim Executive Privilege in his refusals to hand the materials over. The matter was taken up by the Supreme Court who unanimously rejected Nixon’s argument and ordered that the turn the tapes over. When he refuse, the house of Representatives, three days later, voted to impeach the President.
Nixon now realized that he was into a corner from which there was no way out and so it was that on August 8,1974 Richard M. Nixon became the first United States President to resign. Gerald Fore, who had become Vice President upon the resignation of Nixon’s Original VP Spiro T. Agnew, assumed the highest office of the lane. Days after becoming President, Ford pardoned Nixon completely. Nixon was the only Watergate conspirator who spent no time in jail.
The lessons learned by these events are enormous. The story of Watergate is a complex and deep one full of intrigue and back room deals, public politics and personal motivations. It is a deeply American event that touched the world.